Just another periodic update on the woeful state of our nation, here, America: "Nationally, the median income dropped by 1.3% to $50,502 in 2011." It's worse for the poor, naturally. "Los Angeles County households whose earnings put them in the lowest fifth for income in 2011 earned 12% less, on average, than the incomes of that same group in 2007, when the recession began." In New York, Mike Bloomberg's fortune swelled by 28% in the past year, to $25 billion. Meanwhile: "The rich got richer and the poor got poorer in New York City last year as the poverty rate reached its highest point in more than a decade, and the income gap in Manhattan, already wider than almost anywhere else in the country, rivaled disparities in sub-Saharan Africa." Poor smokers in New York spend a quarter of their income on cigarettes. And across the country, "extreme" racial segregation of schools "is becoming more common."